What’s the Navy’s best-kept secret? It might be the special warfare combatant-craft crewman, the lesser-known brother of the Navy SEAL in Coronado.

Ian Cunningham was already in the Navy when he first heard about the specialty, which involves driving 36-foot combat boats at high speeds to insert SEALs into a fight. They also do stand-alone missions, such as teaching foreign forces to secure their coastlines.

To an action junkie, the description appealed.

“Fast boats, big guns -- I was pretty much sold,” said Cunninghan, now a 34-year- old chief petty officer who trains incoming crews at Coronado Naval Amphibious Base.

The 31-week course on the Silver Strand is where all combatant-craft crewmen are forged.

Similar to the grueling training that yields SEALs, the weak don’t make it. The attrition rate hovers around 50 percent. The SEALs have the no-sleep Hell Week. Their brothers, known as SWCC, have a three-day crucible called The Tour.

“We keep them up for three days straight. From the time we start to the time they finish, they are constantly wet, constantly pushing themselves. Runs, swims, paddling around the island -- everything you can think of,” Cunningham said.

The number of pushups, sit-ups and pull-ups required to make the cut as a SWCC is pretty close to the famously hard entry standards of the SEALs. Why?

“It’s a brutal job. Going out on the seas, especially coastal units, there’s times where it’s 6- to 8-foot seas and we’re still doing 40-plus knots,” Cunningham said.

“That’s pretty much a controlled car accident for three hours straight,” he said. “Just being able to survive that and still be able to perform at the level required while you are actually on the mission, that’s why physical readiness is crucial.”

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During Cunningham’s time, the profession of combat crewman has solidified. In 2001, the Navy created a warfare pin specifically for the job. In 2006, the position got its own title, or “rate” in Navy parlance: SB for special warfare boat operator.

The training has become more exact.

“It was growing pains in the community. We weren’t sure what tasks and standards we wanted to instill in students. So it was kind of the flavor of the day, as far as coming to training. It varied greatly,” Cunningham said.

“Now the curriculum is extremely structured. We found it produces the end result we want.”

In Coronado – one of three SWCC units in the world, the others are in Virginia and Mississippi – they drive rigid-hull inflatable boats with a four-man crew.

Technology will be improving those. New ones being tested will be more low-slung, much faster and will finesse rolling waves.

That controlled car crash? Cunningham says it may become less of a crash, which should help the crew and the operators who are their special-delivery package.